We demonstrate the existence of a phase transition in combinatorial optimization problems. For many of these problems, as local search algorithms are parallelized, the quality of solutions first improves and then sharply degrades to no better than random search. This transition can be...

A new approach to drug discovery is based on the generation of high diversity libraries of DNA, RNA, peptides or small molecules. Search of such libraries for useful molecules is an optimization problem of high-dimensional molecular fitness landscapes. We utilize a spin-glass-like model, the NK...

The Utilization of high diversity molecular libraries for dtug discovery in now becoming a cnetrally important and developing set of technologies, (Balliver and Kauffman 1986, 1989,1990, Geysen et. al 1987). Om he pase decade, efforts focused on two approaches: The first is ``genetic'' and based...

We argue that in classical and quantum theories of gravity the configuration space and Hilbert space may not be constructible through any finite procedure. If this is the case, then the ``problem of time'' in quantum cosmology may be a pseudo-problem, because the argument that time disappears...

The theory of autocatalytic binary ligation is reviewed within the context of a rigorously applied Michaelis-Menten quasi-steady-state approximation to obtain explicit analytical results describing time-course data from experiments. A detailed protocol for the step-wise elucidation of a minimal...

In this paper we build a spatial, aspiration-based model of learning in the context of Cournot oligopoly from which we want to explore the conditions that lead to the emergence of cooperation among firms. We consider an economy consisting of many identical duopolies; each duopoly is placed on a...

The paper discusses the role of self-organizing phenomena like emergence of infrastructure and self-organizing criticality in a spatial economy. Some theoretical models are discussed and reviewed. Computer models in the form of simple cellular automata, similar to the game "Life" and Schelling's...

This paper investigates the properties of a local economy in which personal connections are important in finding jobs. The complementarities in the model generate an interesting nonlinear relationship between the distribution of human capital in the economy, the characteristics of the social...

In Part I we provide a heuristic discussion of the motivation for the investigation of games of status. Here we confine our remarks to several alternative formulations of games of status and to exploring the relationship between these games and the class of simple games, in part using the...